Undergraduate - UnitHSC3072 - Health policy and politics

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Offered	Berwick Second semester 2014 (Day) Caulfield Second semester 2014 (Day) South Africa Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Charles Livingstone (Berwick & Caulfield), Dr Samson Muyanga (South Africa)

Synopsis

In this unit, students will examine the political foundations of health promotion and public health policies in Australia, different types of health policy, policy development processes and theories that underpin them. Interest groups and the challenges they pose to decision-making processes will be discussed. The social and political impacts of health policy will be explored, as well as the jurisdictional responsibilities held by different levels of government for health policies. Concepts of power, authority and influence will be discussed. Students will learn critical skills for policy analysis in the context of case studies of effective advocacy that have influenced policy change in Australia.

Outcomes

By the completion of this unit, it is expected that the student will be able to:

identify health policy as a dynamic process which impacts on societies and individuals
identify the structures, systems and institutions that contribute to the Australian health policy environment with emphasis on health promotion and public health policy
critically engage with a range of public policy issues and policy processes
discuss types of health policy within the context of jurisdictions which hold responsibility for them
explain the role of government and their agencies, NGOs and the community in the development and implementation of health policy
distinguish types of power and how they are used by interest groups and individuals in policy development
use policy analysis skills to critique existing policy using a case study approach.